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ISSUE 2
FEBRUARY 2011
LTC PROFESSIONAL
N E W S A N D V I E W S YO U C A N R E A L LY U S E
THE ADELMAN ADVANTAGE
by Rebecca Adelman
KESSLER’S
CORNER
CRISIS COMMUNICATIONS
FOR PROVIDERS –
ARE YOU READY?
Part II
In Part I of this article, the importance
of sound crisis communications was
the focus. We identified possible crisis
scenarios, designation of a Crisis Team
and the responsibilities of team members.
In Part II, we discuss communications
during the crisis and creating the crisis
communications plan.
Crisis Communications Plan
Contacts and Notification – As part
of your Crisis Plan Manual, include an
updated Contact List of team members.
Officers and senior management should
be the first to be notified. If the crisis
calls for immediate contact with media,
the Chief Communications Officer
should notify personnel who may be
in contact with the media and public
and advise them how to respond. The
internal notification protocols will vary
with each organization but generally
should be coordinated through one
crisis team member pursuant to the plan
that, by the time the crisis arises, should
have been tested on a regular basis.
Consider key internal and external
audiences in your notification plan
which may include Agencies (Federal,
State and Local), Attending physicians,
Board members, Elected officials,
Employees, Families/Next-of Kin
and Referring discharge planners and
hospitals. Use telephone banks, voice
mail, email, personal visits, facsimile,
intranets, the organization’s website,
social networking sites (Facebook,
MySpace, Twitter etc…), outside
websites, blogs and traditional media as
communication tools.
Communicating to Employees
– How messages are delivered to
employees will influence the way
employees then communicate with
residents, families, the public and each
other. When notifying employees of
a crisis event: convey the facts and
confirm that everyone understands them;
be in control; and provide updates. Key
information includes a brief summary of
the facts, an explanation of the cause, the
steps being taken in response, how long
it is expected to last, acknowledgement
about emotional impact, identification
of the Crisis Team, identification of
the lines of crisis communications and
a commitment to maintain internal
communications.
The Crisis Communications Plan
- A “Top 10 Vulnerabilities Audit” is a
list of crisis scenarios that could occur
in your organization. Individuals in the
organization should be interviewed and
questioned about crisis preparedness.
Interviews should be conducted with
key executives, managers and staff.
After you have made a list of the crisis
scenarios, it is recommended that you
rank them in order of their probability
of occurring. Develop crisis plans for
the “Top 10” on the list. Conducting
the vulnerabilities audit will allow your
organization to develop a sound business
crisis plan with strategies designed to
reach the stakeholders with information
on the crisis before they hear about it
from the media or other sources.
When
developing
a
crisis
Adelman Advantage continued on page 2
by Chip Kessler
Customer Service:
The Art of Making Amends
This column is going to be very open
in regards to the way I run the day-to-day
business of our company Extended Care
Products, and how you can apply a couple of principles I use to offer even better
customer service to your nursing facility’s residents and families. Let me add
here that our clients are people like you
– those that either work in a nursing facility, or are associated with nursing facilities (because you are with a management
company, ownership group, insurance
company, law firm, or a risk management
company).
So you may be asking, “okay, how
does customer service (or the lack thereof) come into play in your business?”
Indeed it does in any number of ways,
however, no more so than when we screw
something up from our end. An example:
just the other day a nursing facility client
called to inform me that while we sent
him the correct program he ordered, we
included the wrong invoice with the shipment, and to further our embarrassment,
Kessler’s Corner continued on page 3
LTC PROFESSIONAL TIP-OF-THE-MONTH...
How to Best Handle
the Automated
Telephone System
by Nancy White
In an ideal world, a nursing facility (or any type of healthcare or service
related business) would not use an
automated voice forwarding system.
Why? Because we’ve all experienced
the dreaded “punch in this number for
this” and the “punch in this number
for that” syndrome, when all we want
to do is speak to a real live person.
This can be bothersome enough
when we call about a charge on a credit card or need to talk to someone at
the dentist’s office … let alone when
the person on the other end of the
telephone is wrestling with the decision of potentially placing a loved one
in a nursing facility, or is calling our
building because they have a question
about a caregiving issue concerning a
resident already staying with us.
Again, all this person wants to
do is speak with the administrator or
the director nursing or some other
staff member ASAP, and now they
have to navigate a series of prompts
to hopefully get there. To be frank,
there’s nothing good about this from a
customer service or a census building
standpoint. So the question is: how
for our nursing facility to make the
best of this situation?
Here are some suggestions:
1) Make sure your automated
system is as user friendly as possible.
Here you want easy to understand and
easy to follow directions.
2) Streamline the process. The
fewer prompts the better. Accordingly when the caller is asked to push
“three for the administrator” this action should result in the caller then
getting through to the administrator’s
line and not another person (or voice
prompt) in your office.
3) Being aware of and regularly
check your voice messages. As you
well know, working in a nursing facility means you’re constantly on the
go! You’re not chained to your desk
so it’s a fact of life that you’re going
to miss calls. Thus, you must constantly be of a mind-set to check your
messages when you return to your office, and most importantly to immediately return your phone calls … even
though there may be any number of
other people or things vying for your
attention. Sometimes it’s easy to put
returning phone calls off this since the
man or woman who’s left you a message is just a “voice on the phone” and
not a thing needing a resolution or a
person right in your face looking for
an answer.
Naturally when returning that
call, you want to apologize for not being there to initially take it … then get
to work on dealing with the telephone
caller’s question(s) and/or needs.
Nancy White is customer service
representative for several nursing
facilities in the southeastern United
States. Her main responsibility is in
speaking with families about their
satisfaction with the care and services
their loved one is presently receiving
in a client’s facility.
Adelman Advantage continued from page 1
communications plan for the “Top 10”
list, consider questions that relate to the
potential impact on the organization’s
reputation and political and legal
consequences such as: What is the threat
to the organization’s reputation? What can
the organization do to make the response/
reaction positive and favorable? What
are the possible political or regulatory
effects from the crisis? Could a lawsuit
or other investigation result from the
crisis?
The Components of the Plan - Your
organization must complete a manual
that will serve as the central Crisis
Communications Plan. The manual will
coordinate the notification of the crisis
team and other audiences including the
media. The plan should include prepared
key messages for designated team
members to convey to the media for the
duration of the crisis. The plan should
reflect the following qualities and be:
Simple - individuals and teams should
be able to understand their roles and
responsibilities in a clearly written plan;
Easy – individuals and teams should be
able to easily execute the plan; Specific –
the roles of individuals and teams should
be well-defined and clear; Immediate
– a sound plan can be implemented
immediately; Flexible - the plan should
contain some contingencies that include
a supplemental team; and Integrated
– as earlier discussed, the plan should
be a part of an organization’s disaster
preparedness and risk management
plans.
In Part III, we will examine the plan’s
main messages and crisis strategies and
the post-crisis phase.
Rebecca Adelman, Esq. – Ms.
Adelman is the Principal of Adelman
Law Firm, PLLC in Memphis, Tennessee
and has concentrated her practice
in healthcare, and nursing home and
medical malpractice defense litigation
for the past 22 years. She also provides
medico-legal
consulting
services
and educational programming to the
healthcare industry. She is licensed
in Tennessee, Mississippi, Arkansas
and Illinois. The firm is proud to be of
counsel to Quintairos, Prieto, Wood &
Boyer, P.A. and together provide services
to our national and regional clients.
Adelman Law Firm, PLLC
545 South Main Street,
Memphis, Tennessee 38103
Phone 901.529.9313
[email protected]
MDS 101 (1)
T h e
Resident Assessment
Instrument
(RAI),
including the
Minimum
Data (MDS)
Set 3.0, is
a challenging and often
complex process for everyone involved, even for the
seasoned professional. So, for the novice
MDS nurse who is in the throes of learning
the nuts and bolts, it can seem overwhelming, even impossible.
That was my experience 11 years ago
as I began my journey into the world of
the RAI. I was given a copy of the MDS
2.0 RAI User’s Manual, told to read it, and
after 3 very sporadic and confusing days
of training by the outgoing MDS nurse, I
was on my own. Before this I felt pretty
confident as a nurse. But on that day, it felt
like I didn’t know anything. I found myself
asking, “What have I gotten myself into”?
But, as time passed, and the nightmares became less frequent, I began to
gain a level of confidence working the new
assessment tool I had been assigned. Before long, I came to appreciate it for the
value it brought to our systems how much
better we as a team could care for our residents having had to complete the RAI.
By Joel VanEaton
For those of you who are new to working the RAI, let me encourage you to stay
the course. It may not seem like it now, but
you are at the forefront of a highly specialized field and are helping to lead your team
to more resident centered compassionate
care. I applaud you for this and want you to
succeed. So, for the next few months, we
will work together with a view to providing you with some practical information
that will help you in your new endeavor.
For those of you who have been at this for
a while, a review of the basics is always a
good thing.
I would like to start by reminding you
all that as complicated as the RAI seems
right now, it is really just the Nursing Process that you learned in nursing school. Remember ADPIE, (Assess, Diagnose, Plan,
Implement, Evaluate)? It’s the RAI in a
nutshell. Assess = the MDS 3.0, Diagnose
= the CAA’s, Plan = Care Plan, Implement
= putting the care plan to work, Evaluate
= revisiting the care plan as needed to be
sure that it continues to meet the resident’s
needs.
Each piece of the RAI process fits
neatly into one of these categories, from
scheduling assessments to completing the
CATs. Relax, and take a deep breath, the
RAI is just an adaptation of a process you
are already familiar with to the long term
care setting, no biggie. You’re a pro at the
fundamentals already. Applying the specifics of the RAI is where the challenge be-
gins. I know you’re ready, you are a nurse!
So here we go.
Our task will take us through the RAI
Manual, so this is your first priority. Have
an updated copy of the MDS 3.0 RAI User’s Manual available at all times. You will
be well equipped if you will keep this tool
close by. Even experienced MDS nurses
refer to this often as they complete the
MDS and would tell you, “do yourself a
favor and read the manual”. This sounds
trite, but, if you will be successful at this
process, this is a non-negotiable. Decide
how much is reasonable each day and just
do it. Set a goal, don’t put it off. When you
are finished, read it again. Make this a habit. It is a dynamic book, you will learn new
things each time you read it and reinforce
the things you have learned.
For now, I would also encourage you
to make connections with people who have
been doing this for a while. From experience, I know, this is invaluable. You will
have questions. Having access to a phone
number or email of an experienced MDS
nurse will give you a much needed resource
and a vote of confidence as you begin.
Joel VanEaton BSN, RN, RAC-CT is the
author and creator of the MDS 3.0-RUG IV
training programs available from Extended
Care Products, Inc.
His newest program “The Downloadable MDS 3.0 RAI Manual Package” is his
latest contribution and can be ordered at
www.extendedcareproducts.com.
pending upon the severity of your “mistake”, you may need to speak with your
boss (or at least think out your specific
course of action) before you talk to the
affected person or persons. After all is
said and done, most “mistakes” tend to
be forgiven … after all, we’re all human
– and hopefully the individual or individual you’ve offended has made his or
her share of mistakes in the past, and will
remember this. Thus, in my case with
the aforementioned client, the first thing
I did was sincerely apologize to him for
our shortsightedness and mistakes.
2) Go the extra mile. In the case
of Extended Care Products, whenever
we’ve made a “mistake” with a client, I
personally send them a note plus a complimentary copy of one of our other programs. Fortunately, we don’t make the
kinds of mistakes (or something similar)
that I earlier mentioned with a client too
often. Whenever it does occur, I want
our client to walk away from the experience with a positive feeling about our
company … and surprising them with a
free gift of one of our programs has this
effect.
What about you? Well, you need
to look for an action to take of a similar
nature that will both surprise and delight
the wronged party. Perhaps it’s bringing some flowers to a resident’s room or
doing something extra nice for a family
member. The action itself is for you decide. The result can be amazing and pay
dividends for you and your nursing facility, and turn what was a negative into
exactly the opposite.
Chip Kessler is General Manager
of Extended Care Products, Inc. Part
of his responsibilities include creating
and producing staff development and
training programs, including a stepby-step three-part DVD, audio CD
and workbook program entitled “The
Official Nursing Facility Customer
Service Training System.” Discover more
at www.extendedcareproducts.com.
Kessler’s Corner continued from page 1
we included the program’s welcome letter with someone else’s name, then to
top things off, while we got his name
(sort of) on the box’s delivery label, we
misspelled it! All very embarrassing indeed. Granted, compared to what you
go through in your day-to-day dealings
with your residents and families, this is
not in the same ballpark. A mistake or in
this case mistakes, do matter, especially
when my client (or if a resident or family member in your case) feels wronged.
How to handle it?
1) Admit your mistake. Sounds
easy enough, however, you’ll be surprised how many times that people don’t
want to admit that they messed up. Instead, we look for excuses or try to shift
the blame to someone else or something
else. Yet quite often the person or people
that were affected by your oversight or
wrongdoing are more than happy to receive your heartfelt and sincere apology.
The key word here is “sincere” as it really can make a difference. Granted, de-
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We Strived for Accuracy to Get You
This Copy of LTC Professional … However
If the name on the address label isn’t yours then we want
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personally addressed to you. Please send us your contact
information (your name, title, facility or company name and
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